Wind is a means of production that can be described in terms of a portfolio of opportunities for creating value. Similarly, a range of apparatus, controls, methods, locations, appurtenant markets and mission information describe another portfolio of opportunities to realize value from wind. Tethered gyroglider control systems are required to take into consideration a union of these two dynamic portfolios to improve the certainty of performance and value creation along with a unique third circumstance of the physical presence, constraints, integrity, sufficiency, lifecycle and lifetime costs, performance and safety of the tether itself, and of the systems' dependence on, or independence from the tether.
Terrestrial wind powered generation systems have historic precedence, characterized by five general observations:
Firstly, the apparatus used to convert energy contained in wind into another form of useful power is typically present at a fixed location, and may be equipped to pivot or is provided with other mechanisms to alter the orientation of the apparatus and associated features to most favorably address prevailing intermittent terrestrial wind, but within the context of a fixed location and height generally above the nap of the earth.
Secondly, the understanding of wind is typically described in some generality as to intermittent winds, whose velocity, time of day, seasonality, averages and the like, with control systems generally responding to the present wind, seeking to orient the apparatus and its controls relative to the present wind, together with other adjustments that seek to optimize power conversion, minimize cost and risk, including those conditions that might endanger the apparatus itself, or to property or persons in the vicinity of such apparatus.
Thirdly, the performance characteristics of terrestrial wind power generating apparatus known in the art have proven that power tends to increase as the speed of relative wind increases, however only up to a point where excess wind energy is passed or avoided that might endanger the apparatus or appurtenant systems. This results in power generation that reaches a plateau of diminishing realized power at comparatively slow wind velocities, and independent of what could be ever increasing wind velocities. It is also observed that power generation itself is intermittent to a substantial degree, dependent solely on the proximate available wind that sustain operation.
Fourthly, the terrestrial wind turbines are large, robust fixed structures that are typically around 200 to 500 feet tall, in part to reach those heights, and to deploy larger rotor blades to capture available wind energy. Their design requires hundreds of tons of steel and other material, plus substantial permanent foundations and supporting infrastructures that many people regard as a blemish to an otherwise unobstructed natural landscape, seascape and horizon, yet the public has come to expect them as necessary artifacts for satisfying clean and renewable energy policies and mandates. Their design and operation also suffer under the tax of the square-cube rule that describes aspects of diminishing net performance results from increases in the scale, mass or size of rigid structures.
Fifthly, terrestrial wind turbines operate generally as single-unit autonomous systems, independent of each other—working well or less well individually as an intermittent power generation source—the sum of collective performance managed as inputs to a comprise a collective output. Generally, a single terrestrial wind turbine's electrical, mechanical, and structural or other physical failure is independent of other terrestrial wind turbines deployed within the fixed proximity in groups, clusters or “wind farms.”
Stationary terrestrial wind power generation systems wait for wind to arrive at a fixed location, and then adjust to that wind within the notable constraints discussed above. This is opposed to the new dynamics of agile tethered gyrogliders that can effectively hunt for favorable wind from among a portfolio of winds that can occur at almost any altitude, location and geospatial dimension, and then employ an array of apparatus, navigation, control and operating strategies to maximize power generation from among that portfolio of available and anticipated winds with notably different characteristics including widely varying air density and about fifty times the energy content of terrestrial wind. Stationary terrestrial wind power generation systems are designed for intermittent power generation of essentially fixed production levels (steep initial power curve and long plateau) also limited by available wind, or absence of wind, at a fixed location. Their performance generally comprises two states: A.) operating and generating power and B.) not operating and not generating power, both for periods of several or many hours at a time in each state.
Power generated by tethered gyrogliders envisioned by the control system introduces other states that differ from stationary terrestrial wind turbines and include 1.) Power generation cycles that are limited by controlled navigation amid generally sufficient winds, consisting of separate and rhythmic power strokes that harness kinetic energy from available wind, and recovery strokes that reposition the gyroglider for a subsequent power stroke. This mimics the rhythmic pumping-like action of a piston inside a reciprocating engine. 2.) The capacity for asymmetrical performance with the force generated by the power stroke generally being greater in the outbound direction, and the recovery stroke being driven by the retrieval under power of the requiring a lesser amount of force (power, energy) required by the system for that purpose. 3.) The capability for a static state consistent with loitering in fixed geospatial location that is not unlike the use of a clutch that operates in between a motor and transmission in an automobile. 4.) The capacity to navigate from one geospatial location to another geospatial location. 5.) The capacity to coordinate rhythmic power and recovery strokes among more than one gyroglider to harmonize their collective production, in similar fashion to a multi-cylinder engine that delivers consistent performance by their combination. 6.) The capacity to coordinate a field, swarm or collection of such gyrogliders and their tethers safely, individually and in unison, so as to preserve the exclusive geospatial requirements of each individual gyroglider, its appurtenant systems and its tether, separate from all others in proximity to avoid collisions, entanglement or other potentially or actual harmful circumstance. and, 7.) The capacity to coordinate the deployment, geospatial location, navigation, appurtenant systems, including the ground station and its appurtenant systems, and the critical integrity, sufficiency and performance of the tether, amid error conditions or other events, that have or may compromise, one or more of the gyroglider, tethers, ground stations or other assets, property or people in proximity.
Therefore, tethered gyrogliders call for a fundamentally different control system that employs advantages of these new dynamics. These dynamics can be observed, determined, calculated and used in simulations, analyzed in real time or before or after, or by analysis of historic performance or experience, and can be synthesized into control system apparatus, methods, control strategies, including logs, algorithms, bespoke calculating machines, prescribed flight control libraries, unique identities and abstracted or synthesized characteristics of structural, functional, control or operating components, smart sensors and smart sensor networks including those deployed in or along the length of the tether, and appurtenant communications, signaling or transmission apparatus, and used to observe, seek to control and navigate gyrogliders at heights at or above the nap of the earth. Such observation, determination, calculation, simulation, analysis and synthesis includes a portfolio of proximate winds, and those that might become proximate, at almost any altitude, geospatial location, geospatial dimension or duration, and the agile navigation of gyrogliders, in any orientation, or navigated paths relative to such terrestrial wind or those aloft, and to the gyroglider's base station, farm, and coordinated with other gyrogliders in proximity.
Unlike terrestrial wind turbines that have no control to seek or reach other winds other than those that happen to occur at their fixed location, the combined characteristics of tethered gyrogliders, ground stations, wind and climatic forecasts and the control systems make possible the prospect to search for, and if possible, identify and utilize a portfolio of winds that are either present, or anticipated, that are favorable to such power generation system's operation, or for other applications for tethered gyrogliders. This also includes the prospect to sustain performance by utilizing a portfolio of winds versus terrestrial wind present, typically, not at a fixed location; however there can be no assurance that sufficient winds are reasonably located within the present, possible or anticipated geospatial location of a tethered gyroglider's base station and its base station envelope comprising the geospatial locations all prior art gyroglider flight controls, together with the control systems described herein, point to.
Generally speaking, tethered gyrogliders are agile and powerful aircrafts, capable of navigation and generating forces in multiple dimensions, geospatial orientations and navigational maneuvers, individually or concurrently, as a group, cluster or in a swarm, and in any combination thereof, even those that may appear to consist of static geospatial positions of the gyroglider. Tethered gyroglider control systems also differ from untethered aircraft control systems as a result of the dynamics that result from such tethering including constrained aeronautical, aero-elastic behavior. Tethered gyrogliders are also typically complex tensile structures. Generally speaking, a tethered aircraft especially gyrogliders, can be described as having a force of tension acting between two points of the base station anchor and the very tips of the rotor blades, such force of tension being conducted through the tether, through the rotor hub and to the rotor blades themselves as the other end point anchor. The gyroglider's fuselage, control devices and elements of the ground station are among the notable exceptions to an otherwise typical predominantly tensile structural design, and are themselves subject to, are involved in, and seek to withstand and effect control over significant forces experienced by the system. If the gyroglider's design is more akin to a kite, it also experiences tensile forces acting between ground station anchor point, through the tether, to the kite's structure, and over its surface which may require a complex description as an end point anchor per se. Therefore, concepts of relative up or down, left or right, or compass-bearing or point-to-point ground-position referenced navigational controls and vectors are incomplete to describe the simultaneous linear and non-linear phenomena and forces present, experienced, determined and calculated by the control system, and transmitted to a network of navigational and system controls, the tether, base station controls, farm controls, physical, electronic and cyber security and safety systems, and those other controls of appurtenant apparatus or systems. This is equally true of the term “optimal” which is an approximation that over time, and with the control system's capacity to simulate, synthesize, anticipate, realize and acquire experience, can be refined by the control system's capabilities to learn and/or adapt itself in a continuous attempt to better approximate “optimal” performance, which may be highest performance, minimum performance or any among a range of performance objectives, amid uncertainty, linear and non-linear complexities. The gestalt of these various dynamics of tethered gyrogliders and control systems, taken together, comprises a performance envelope for the tethered gyroglider.